To Face Corruption
by ShadowsRising
Summary: The champions fell, the Knight was killed, the Princess trapped the calamity. It began with the fall, and the it began again. And the Champions lived once more.
1. It Began With The Fall

It began with the fall of the champions.

The champion of sand and lighting fell first, the champion of water last.

They fought and fought but couldn't hold off the taint, the malice.

_ragehatepainrageragehatePAIN_

She fought with blade and shield, fierce as she had always been. But the champion of Lightning couldn't, win she fell to the strike of the malice and felt it wrap around her dragging her into its depths as she screamed in fury and pain and _hatehateragepainHATE _.

But the malice held strong and the champions screamed with the loss of one.

_painlossdespairhatepainhateragePAIN_

The second to fall was the champion of Stone and fire.

He was strong and fierce but the champions felt the fall of the first felt her screams and cries and the champion of stone and fire faltered.

He faltered, stumbled, winced with the sudden all consuming loss of one of his siblings in arms. The sudden howling where she should have been in his mind.

His strength was legendary his resolve known through all the kingdom. But he could not stand up to the malice that swept through, that wrapped around him and trapped him in it.

Could not free himself from the same fate, could not escape the all consuming tide.

_hatepainragedespairsorrowgriefpainpainPAIN_

The third to fall was the champion of Wind.

He rose on steady wings and vowed to protect his village his people. He let go of the anger and pain he had hidden inside of him of the mask he had worn and flew high above to his Divine Beast and knew as the others fought as he felt their minds wrapped around his that the foreboding feeling that had followed him would strike.

He hated when he was correct when the connection to Lightning shuddered and screamed and was quickly followed by the connection to Stone but his sight did not lie like his mind might and his village was in danger.

In saving it he knew the malice would take him but hopefully his beast would be free of the malice would escape.

He dove through cloud and empty sky, rose on powerful wings, and struck.

His aim was true, but he knew even that would not save him.

For a moment he hung in the sky, for a moment he watched his people.

And then he fell, malice matted in his wings.

_hopedesperationlovepainpainhatepainsorrowgriefpainPAIN_

The last to fall was the champion of Water.

_But was she the last?_

She fell with a cry of _despairsorrowgrief _she fought with her trident biting into the malice but she could not hold out alone not with the pain of her brothers and sisters in arms wrapped around her mind the screaming of the princess in her head.

She danced, but even water could only dance for so long, even she could only fight for so long.

Her powers had come _finallyFINALLY_ but too late for the knight had fallen.

And she vowed to take as many as she could with her, the Princess grief aching through her mind, the screaming of her fellow champions, the pain bleeding through her every thought.

_FALLENpainmalicehateFALLFALLFALL_

The champion of Water was a healer, _the only reason she'd survived so long_, but she closed her eyes and ground her sharp teeth and cried out in the ancient tongue of her people and when the malice took hold of her body and she fell she told herself that she had done what was necessary one day the hero, the knight would walk again and she had bought them the time to ensure it. She could die now, her purpose, their purpose was fulfilled.

And after that there was only the malice left. The blights that tormented their people.

_ragehatepainhatepainangersorrowgriefhateLOVEpainhatePAINRAGE_

And then it stops.

The very land seems to shudder, to scream with the loss of its champions, its Knight, the grief of the sole defender that remains, the one that traps the Calamity.

The air fills with the smoke of the burning homes and villages and _lives_.

They prepared for months, _months_.

But they lost everything in only 1 day.

The people mourned. Their champions dead their lives irreparably broken the very place they lived now broken and unrecognizable the people forced into lives of fear.

The malice, the blights that had taken the place of their champions where the first thing they tried to stop.

They refused to consider them as anything but a thing, the malice that had taken their champions from them, their peace, their lives.

_sorrowgriefpain_

It wasn't what they'd wanted but they were nothing if not survivors and they refused to bow down. To bow meant failure and no matter the strength of their enemy no matter the destruction he wrought.

_Their champions did not bow therefore neither would they._

The villages grew and spread, carefully, slowly, over time. Many people chose to travel. They would not remain in the ruins of their homes they would leave.

And the people fell into a nomadic life, a life of fighting and fear. The people banded together, they no longer had to fear each other because there was something much larger to fear.

Something they had no chance of escaping, and no chance of defeating.

And as time passed and slowly the people adapted to this new life of theirs with villages dotting the land, hidden as they were and the knowledge of the danger of traveling, myths were forgotten legends became myths and the champions, ever so slowly became another legend.

A legend mourned by some and disbelieved by others.

A legend forgotten in time replaced by the blights that had claimed them.

And the Calamity was held trapped unable to break free.

But prepared, when it broke the last defender, it would destroy this world.

As it had always prepared to do.

As change swept through the lands.

Something had awoken, something had come.

Or had it returned?

And for a single moment the air shuddered as the blights as one froze.

And the champions seemed to stop, to shudder, and then as one they screamed .

_sorrowgriefpainhatepaingriefragehatemalicepainhateragerageragpain_


	2. It Begins Again

It begins again when the malice screams and wind tears away from it.

It begins again when Wind wakes _up_.

_painhateragepainragehaterageRAGE_

Wind wakes with a shudder and the feeling of malice around him.

Wind wakes with a screech in the ancient tongue he knows and a push that tears his head free of the malice a wrench that tears his wings free and a twist as he jerks away with rage in his very bones, deep within his very being.

It begins again, when a light re enters their minds.

It begins again when something thought lost is returned to them.

_HATEPAINRAGELOSSLOVE_

Wind leaps into the air with a flip and dodges the attacks that had ruined him last, he had fought, draws taught a bow string he should not have, his bow, which he had seen broken held again in his feathers an arrow he should _not_ have flying towards the blight.

_He does not care._

He attacks again diving towards it and tearing into the malice with steel tipped wings and a shriek, the war cry that the malice now _fears_.

He twists through the air a driving force as Medoh moves around him matching him in everything, their connection stronger than it ever was when they lived.

He is free, and he will not be reclaimed.

Wind is vicious and quick, just as it has always been. Just like he must be now.

The blight screams again but this is its last the fight is over the blight will fall, wind afterall cannot be trapped and held.

_Wind is free._

When the blight falls dead the champion of Wind lands and marvels at the world around him. He is free at last.

Wind hangs in the air, the knowledge and memory of death forefront on his mind.

A liquid dripping through his feathers, Vah Medoh shifting around him. He is free, What Now?

_RAGEPAINLOSSGRIEFLOVE_

As Wind marvel's at his sudden freedom, at the knowledge that the Knight still lives, Water twists.

Water pushes against her confines. She is not so quick and vicious in her escape as Wind was, but she is not one to be contained she will be free.

She snarls, presses outwards, bares sharp teeth, and she is free.

Trident held in one hand, armor glistening as if she had never fallen.

She meets the Malice in battle once more. But this time she is empowered with Wind's new found freedom, with the knowledge that the Knight lives again.

She has suffered a thousand years for this, she will not fail a second time.

She meets the blights every strike, dancing throughout the battle.

The Blight stumbles, falters, falls. She does not.

She looks at the trident held in one hand, the trident she knows she had lost. And wonders.

But she knows at the same time, she is not simply a spirit, they are not dead.

She is flesh and blood, and bleeding.

_windwaterbloodlifelivebleedLIVE_

Warm rivulets dripping down smooth skin.

Wind is the same, a sharp image of bloodied feathers, pressed the console of Vah Medoh.

Of Malice retreating as Vah Medoh's shriek fills the air.

Vah Ruta shudders around her, malice clear throughout. And Water does not hesitate to follow Wind's suggestion.

Bloodied palm pressed down on the console she had once stood nervously at.

When once she had feared whether she was good enough, whether they truly wanted a healer as a champion.

_RAGEHATEPAINLOSSLOVE_

Lightning wakes next.

Wakes with Wind and Water calling in her mind, reaching and pulling as they draw her to wake.

_lovefreedomhopegrieflosslove_

And Lightning wrenches herself free from the _ragepainhatepainragesuffering _and roars her own war cry. Blade and shield in hand, helm atop her head.

She is not as quick as Wind, does not dance like Water. But she is lightning and when she strikes, it is devastating.

The Blight struggles, falters, shrieks. But she can see the sand storm outside Vah Naboris, knows that she will be free.

Nothing will come to aid the Blight, and so she does not falter, does not contemplate failure.

And when finally the blight falls and Wind and Water press and whisper to her through their connection, broken and weakened as it is.

She knows to place her bloodied palm against Vah Naboris console knows to wait as Vah Naboris wakes once more, and expel the malice that had tried so hard to control it.

And she reaches back, mind brushing theirs, and is met with _painlossgriefhopelovehopefreedom_.

And the Malice that still holds so much of their world screams, it knows of the change, it knows of the sudden freedom of the light's champions.

_RAGEHATERAGEPAINSUFFERINGHATEHATEHATE_

Fire wakes last, wrenches himself free with a roar, and grasps his weapon two handed.

Fire wakes last with Wind and Water and Lightning already whispering in his ear.

_freedomhopelovefreedom_

Fire is born of stone and weathers the strikes of his enemy in the same fashion, hefts his blade and strikes with deadly precision and roars as he launches himself at the blight that bested him once.

_Never again. _

Fire roars in time with Vah Rudania, Fire roars with the magma that surrounds him. He hears the wind whistle by, hears lightning crackle, feels the press of water as his skin heals. He and his fellow champions fight as one, they are free.

The light of their Knight whispering against their bond, he is not yet conscious to this change.

But when he is, they will prepare to free the Princess, to best the malice.

To force it free of their world.

And the blight falls before him as he turns away.

An image of bloody feathers, and bloody palms pressed to the consoles.

And he follows suit. The slightest prick on his palm and a quick smear of blood as Vah Rudania seems to shudder around him, and expels what malice was left.

_freedomhopesafetyhopefreedomsuccess_

The whisper of Water against his mind, Mipha reaching out as her energy soothes what few injuries he sustained.

Closing the gash on his palm before it withdraws and the odd crackle of Urbosa echoes around him a moment longer, Revali's wind seeming to swirl above his head. And they are gone again, returned to themselves each standing within the massive divine beasts they call their own.

Wind lifts his head, prepares and takes flight. Vah Medoh sweeping down to land above the village he had given his life to defend.

Water walks slowly through Vah Ruta, she has already stopped the endless rain as she leaps into the water below.

Lightning watches as the sand slows, the storm ending with Vah Naboris rage, and sets out.

Fire waits as Vah Rudania settles, before he too turns to leave.

They travel to the same location, the Knight lives after all.

It is high time he woke up.


End file.
